Observations, articles, opinions etc. in Dutch and English. The author, Bert de Bruin (Yonathan Dror Bar-On), is a Dutch-Jewish historian, who has specialized in modern Jewish history and in the history of the Middle East, and who in 1995 emigrated from the Netherlands to Israel. He wrote one book (2008), and edited another (2011), both in Dutch. For feedback please post a comment, or send this blog's author an email: (hisdutchname)atyahoodotcom

Saturday, December 25, 2010

During my week-long stay in Germany I came to know an exciting German band, called Soehne Mannheims ( The Sons of Mannheim ). One of the songs sung by the choir of the school that hosted the orchestra of my school was Und wenn ein Lied... On the last day of our stay, when we were in Cologne, a friend of mine helped me find an album with a live version of that beautiful song. I bought that double album, which contains two MTV Unplugged concerts, one by the whole band and another by one of its best known frontmen, Xavier Naidoo. The band plays in various spots in Europe in March and November next year, if they were to play somewhere near my place of residence I definitely would make an effort to go and see them. Multiculturalism may have failed in Germany, as Angela Merkel has claimed. The discussion about a Leitkultur is a sensitive one in Germany, as in Holland and elsewhere. All in all I was very glad to discover that Germany appears to be a very open, tolerant, and culturally rich and diverse society, in which people from so many cultural and ethnic backgrounds share one language and various central values, and in which bigotry - of any kind - and narrow-mindedness are totally unacceptable. Xavier Naidoo and his band exemplify that openness. This was my first visit ever to Germany, and I hope many more visits will follow, I really enjoyed my stay there.

Yesterday, on the evening news, I saw a short report on an interesting Chanukkah party here in Israel. The one lighting the candles was Heinz-Christian Strache, the successor of Joerg Haider as leader of the Austrian extreme-right Freedom Party. Another face that I recognized in the small audience was that of Filip Dewinter, the Belgian counterpart of Mr Strache. They were hosted by I don't know which settler organization. One of the Israeli faces that I recognized was that of Elyakim Haetzni, an Israeli extreme-rightwinger and settler-activist. It takes one to appreciate/befriend/cooperate with one, apparently. So what if as far as we Jews are concerned (the followers of) men like Dewinter and Strache have a few grey or black spots in their history? Fascism has many faces, from Austrian neo-nazis, through Belgian populist xenophobes, to Israeli reli-ultra-nationalists. This is much more than just the simple the-enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend line of thought, these men have much more in common than only their hatred towards Muslims and Arabs.
PS: You can read more about the visit of the Austrian and Belgian politicians here. It turns out they were invited by an MK of Israel Our Home, which happens to be part of the current governing coalition. As Adar Primor writes, this is all very much "LeTif 'ereth Medinat Yisrael".

This is what we saw in our street, an hour or two after the fire started one week ago, about half an hour after I returned home. Notice the lit headlights on the car that enters the street. The picture was taken with my mobile phone.

In the sickening discussion around one of the topics that are preoccupying the minds of Israelis these days, when we are still mourning more than forty men and women who perished last Thursday on the Carmel mountain, at least one of the leading rabbis in Israel asked a question that a Jew should ask himself and others: "What if there was a similar call in Berlin against renting properties to Jews?". Yishar Koah, rabbi Steinman!

Recent work by three leading Dutch cartoonists: Joep Bertrams, Jos Collignon, and Tom Janssen. The first one deals with a Dutch news item ( or rather, with several recent news items ), the others are about issues that have made international headlines in the last few weeks.

Sunday, December 05, 2010

When I read this I couldn't help being reminded of good old Muhammad Sa'id as-Sahhaf, the Iraqi propaganda minister, and about the Knights who say Ni. Bibi has quite some hutzpah, trying to turn Israel's failure - which brutally cost the lives of more than forty young Israelis - into some kind of victory. If and when the fire is finally under control, that will be because of the blood, sweat, and tears of thousands of brave policemen and -women, firefighters, rescue workers and others, and because of the help, the expertise, and the hard work of hundreds of foreigners who came to help us. Any Israeli government official who tries to take credit for all that should be ashamed of himself. But then, if such officials and politicians knew any real shame, very few of them would still be where they are, and we probably would be in a much better state, in both senses of that word.
PS: Of course, I confused the Knights of Ni with the Black Knight, also from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

am I not surprised that rabbi Ovadyah Yosef and Ismail Haniyeh basically reach the same conclusion? There is one major difference between the two that is relevant in this context: one of them has an envoy in Israel's government who should take responsibility ( which is not the same as the blame ) for at least some of the failures that turned this fire into the disaster that it has become.

Now you can see more or less where I live: right above the source of the enormous pall of smoke. The picture I found on the website of Ha'Aretz. All the time now we hear airplanes and helicopters flying over, on their way to and from the seats of fire. This morning I saw something that would have been very funny if the whole situation were not so sad. After we got up I turned on the television to see if there was any news. One of the three main channels broadcast reruns of a breakfast show. For today they had chosen (I assume it was pre-programmed and not a deliberate choice) a rerun of a show that was broadcast originally in spring. In the show tips were given on what to eat and do on Lag Ba'Omer, the holiday (between Pesach and Shavuot) when kids light bonfires all over the country. By the way, it is ironic that during Chanukkah the Greeks have come to help us Jews extinguish a fire. You have to understand Hebrew to understand what is funny about the following; in Hebrew Mekhabim (extinguishers, as in fire fighters, mekhabey esh) is written with the same letters as Maccabees: HaYevanim Ozrim laMekhabim (the Greeks help the extinguishers/Maccabees).

Thursday, December 02, 2010

We are closely following these events. My wife called me early in the afternoon, just before I was about to leave work. She was already home, and had prepared a bag, just in case. All the way home, driving across Haifa, I saw the enormous smoke clouds over the city. We live on the northern side of the mountain slope, the fire is on the southern side. This is a disaster of national proportions that we haven't witnessed here for quite a few years. Let's hope the fire is estinguished soon. For at least several dozens of people it appears to have been too late already. May their memory be a blessing.
Update (3.12.10):
We went to bed very late - or early - last night. We had packed one more bag, and I had prepared a pouch with our passports, some other important things, two USB sticks with backups of all the important files on my computer, things like that. It seems that our neighborhood is not being threatened anymore. Several houses in the Denya neighborhood in Haifa (which is the part of Haifa that is closest to where we live) have been evacuated, but the fire did not reach them. The fire is still not under control, but I hope that with international help ( thank G'd for that ) that will finally happen, the sooner the better of course. Slowly but surely the dimensions of this tragedy - and of the unpreparedness of the authorities - are beginning to become clear. Most of the victims who died yesterday were cadets in an officer course of the prison service. That means - on this morning's news bulletins this was confirmed - that most if not all of them were married men and women with young children. One of the missing persons is a 17-year-volunteer, a classmate of the daughter of a very good friend of ours. Today there will be at least 41 funerals all over the country. Once again we see wonderful signs of solidarity, one of the great things that still characterize Israel in times of crisis. People have opened their homes for evacuees, hotels are being filled with them, every possible kind of help is being offered. I just received a message from the school were I work. Tomorrow teachers and students will collect snacks, drinks etc. and distribute them to the firefighters, rescue workers etc. This morning we were invited by friends of ours, who live up north in a mixed religious-secular community in a very pastoral setting, for Friday night dinner (and for the rest of the weekend, if we want to), so that we can breathe some fresh air (we have to keep our windows closed). But we are all fine. I wish that could be said for all those who had to leave their homes, or the people who have lost their homes or - even worse - their loved ones. Our thoughts are with them, and with the thousands of men and women who are working extremely hard under almost impossible circumstances to stop the flames from spreading and to save lives, nature and property. This includes the wonderful men of Zaka. If you look for an organization in Israel that deserves your financial support, Zaka certainly is a worthy option, believe me.